The 4 D's of Dog Training

The 4 D’s of training

The majority of people I come across have some idea of how to teach a dog to do something- most commonly, sit. They are often bemused when I ask them to turn their back and ask the dog to sit and very surprised when the dog looks completely bemused. Sitting for half a second while you have treats or the dog’s dinner in your hand and nothing else is happening doesn’t quite cut it though. You will most certainly need more than that, assuming that is you want more control of your dog!

Applying the principle of the 4 D’s in your training plan will help you solidify all your cues and get a response from your dog when you need it most.

Duration – Duration refers to how long your dog will continue to do a task without interruption. If I am standing having a chat or just waiting to cross the road, I want my dog to hold the sit position until I release them.

Distance – There are two parts to increasing distance. One is how far away you can be from the dog and still get them to sit. The other part is to have the dog sit and remain sitting whilst you move away from them.

Distraction - Distractions, or what behaviourists call competing motivators, are all those things in life that will compete with you for your dog's attention. Fun things, scary things, smelly things...life is full of distractions. In the dog training world, it is best to teach anything new with no distractions and gradually add distractions to make any exercise more challenging. Bouncing a ball or just asking someone to walk past a dog in 'sit-stay' is a form of adding a distraction. Behaviourists and trainers will often use the term "proofing" to describe distraction training. Proofing is generally the biggest element of training that is skipped, meaning that when you need your cues to work most, they are likely to let you down.

Difficulty-Anything that can be taught can be made tougher. If you teach the dog to sit on the kitchen floor, they may not know how to sit on grass, the patio or the carpet or even in a different room. These may seem like very small changes but some of these may seem ‘huge’ to your dog. Work towards getting the dog to sit in different rooms, on different surfaces, in the car or by the roadside. Every time you teach them to sit in a more difficult way, you are increasing their understanding of the cue.

Start by gradually adding one D into your training at a time. If your dog can’t be successful, go back and make the training easier, because it’s your job to be sure they succeed. Endeavour to lower the other D’s when adding or increasing the D you’re focusing on. So, if you have effectively performed a 5 minute sit/stay in the kitchen and want to progress this to the garden, work on a 10 second sit, reward this then build it up to the 5 minutes, once successful with this you can add in a small distraction.

Good Luck. Enjoy your training

Roy Young BCCSDip.AdvCanBhv